Last year I reported on James Murray's letter of application to the British Museum Library, which did not get the future editor of the OED a job despite his acquaintance with the Romance tongues, Italian, French, Catalan, Spanish, Latin & in a lesser degree Portuguese, Vaudois, Provencal, & various dialects...

The move was inspired by the Helvetic Committee in Paris, a revolutionary group headed by Frédéric-César de La Harpe, (17541838), a Vaudois whose great aim was the liberation of his homeland from the hated Bernese aristocracy, and by Peter Ochs of Basel, who drafted the Helvetic constitution and submitted it to the directory.